"In my opinion, as well as the opinion of several colleagues, and I express this view to make it the subject of broader discussion," said Pashinyan during a meeting with the Ministry of Justice staff, AzVision.az reports. 

He even pointed out that those should be not just constitutional amendments, but a whole new document.

What specific changes is Pashinyan looking to make? The current constitution poses a significant hurdle to reaching a peace treaty between Yerevan and Baku.

As of today, Armenia still officially sees Karabakh as part of its territory according to the constitution. In the preamble of the constitution of Armenia, there is a reference to the Declaration of Independence of Armenia, the basis of which is the "joint decision" of the Supreme Councils of the Armenian SSR and the so-called "Nagorno-Karabakh" on December 1, 1989, regarding "reunification". Hence, discussions claiming this country has no territorial claims to Azerbaijan will not make sense until Armenia revises its constitution by removing this provision, and the signing of any agreement remains impractical.

And this is not the first time Armenia's PM has urged for a change in the constitution. Back in August 2023, Pashinyan aimed the declaration of Armenia's independence on its 33rd anniversary.

According to Pashinyan, he had gone through the declaration's text multiple times, both before and especially after the 2020 war. He confessed that his understanding of the text had significantly shifted before and after those events.

"A close analysis of the declaration's text shows that we ended up embracing a discourse and content built on a formula that essentially turned us into a part of the USSR. It revolves around the regional context and a confrontational discourse meant to keep us in a perpetual state of conflict with our neighbors," said the PM.

Over three years since the end of the Second Karabakh War and the severe defeat suffered by the Armenian side, while Baku actively works towards peace, Pashinyan and his close circles are only just now realizing that the hindrances to peace are rooted deeply in Armenia's own history.

AzVision.az

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